Sorry for the confusion. What I mean is, even with everything on and not replacing the tune or cats, the car ran fine. It's the visual inspection of the cats that will fail you.

 

So have you passed the smog test with the tune in place?
And have you passed the test now, yes or no, do you have a new registration sticker?
Did you replace the cats?
We just want to know what you had to do to pass?
Thanks, Wayne B.

 

If I lived in CA I would open a “cat’ rental shop and stock all of the OEM cats for commonly modded cars. Provide a same day cat swaps and charge a rental price and deposit.

 

The reason why the state fails modified cars - even if they "pass" the emissions test - is because a modified engine may have excessive emissions at RPM and loads other than what is tested for in the test. The emission test only runs at certain rpm and loads, so the state has no way of knowing whether that particular engine fails under other conditions, so they default to "fail."

As someone else here wrote, if you were in California in the 1960 or 1970s, the smog was so bad it was exactly like your neighbor having his roof tarred. The sulfur smell was really bad. After catalytic converters came along, that ended. Even now when you're on the freeway, you can always "sniff out" a classic car far ahead way before you can see it, the smell of raw fuel is pretty bad. So while it's all inconvenient, it really is there for a reason.

 

While very true, CA Legislation has done more to increase carbon pollution with Toll Roads and Express Lanes, which have reduced free flowing traffic. Along with sparsely used Bicycle Lanes this has slowed traffic and created more traffic jams, which creates more idling and pollution. If it were purely about Pollution, the best start is at the Corporate Leve, staffing OSHA correctly, imposing meaningful fines and restitution. In addition, creating the infrastructure to make EV's practical. "The least represented becomes the target."

In Los Angeles, the traffic flow infrastructure plan looks like someone went to Amsterdam and said, hey thats a great idea. Problem is, L.A Co. is 100x larger and not strategically laid out for effectiveness. JMO

 

As a native Californian who lived in LA thru the 80's I recall when the smog in the summer was like a brown dome with a 3 mile visibility limit and breathing was a bad idea. The difference between then and now is a miracle of improvement in quality of life. Many have lost sight of just how much cleaner the air is now. Keep in mind that there are 30% more cars on the road now, and going forward, as the population grows, if we don't reduce pollution per mile driven the air will just get gradually worse again.

I encourage everyone to be kind to the atmosphere and maintain your emission systems. It's not as if we have to pollute more than necessary to get amazing performance with today's cars. Of course, I race a car with no cat or emissions control at all, so I'm no saint. All I'm saying is be mindful of the tradeoff.

 

I always say:

"I'm from NJ...I don't like breathing any air that I can't see"



More seriously, we live in the "NJ Highlands" and I could always see the brown air once I drove past the last hill, towards NYC.
"Brown Dome" indeed.

 

We in Utah hear that your brown dome is caused by the "mass" exodus ....with U Haul trailers!

 

This inforgraphic is AWESOME about the 2015 - 2019 exodus... https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeaut..._from_20152019

but "exodus" isn't the right word. In the same years, we had a net influx of people, overall. They did move to less dense parts (statistically... of course urban influx was big), to some extent, especially during the pandemic. The real treat is all the new people will offer all cash, no home inspection, and 20% over asking! YIPPEEeeee. If my house with a bridge to bridge bay view doesn't burn down from a fire in our open space, it's my retirement plan LOL I hear we Californians are crushing it in Idaho. At least we're bringing some empathy (actually, as climate changes marches eastward, all my OR, ID, CO friends who made "fun" [good natured friendly barbing] of our fires are like WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!? I had 5 friends have to evac that recent CO Louisville and Superior fire, while each having various minor heat or burn scar damage... their houses were saved! ) along with us as we scatter. lol AND YES I KNOW this is dangerously close to being off topic. Just look at the pretty graphic (I can't upload gifs inline I guess), and we'll move on. =)